G’day Everyone

After monitoring the 12 volt system yesterday afternoon we decided that the system was receiving charge from the solar panels and driving but not from mains power. When we talked to Winnebago again in the morning and described what was happening they said it sounded like a faulty charger and to get an auto electrician to look at it in Dubbo. He wasn’t sure where it was located in our van but he described what it looked like.

Tim took us out to see an art exhibition in the middle of nowhere. It was a paddock full of 17 Holden Utes turned into pieces of art (called ‘Utes in the Paddock‘). We stayed and ate lunch there, Erik sat outside in his chair and talked to the horse that was just over the fence about two metres away.

Once in Parkes, we had little drive around the three van parks to see which one we wanted to stay at. We picked one that was directly across from the new Parkes Motor Museum, as Tim needed to go there in the morning so it was handy. I went into the van park office and checked us in. When the guy told me the amount for two nights I thought it was a bit high and the owner told me that it was an additional $5 per night per child. I said they were under two and he said it didn’t matter. As I don’t normally register us I wasn’t sure what was normal, so when we parked I told Tim what we were charged and he was outraged. After a quick discussion, we decided that we didn’t want to stay and Tim went back to the office for a refund. The owner didn’t want to give it to us and Tim wanted to know the justification behind charging van park fees for an infant (2 months old) and toddler (under two). In case you are wondering, the owner said that they use hot water and he had to empty the nappies out of the bin. Tim asked if he usually went through peoples rubbish picking out individual items coz our dirty nappies just went in with our trash and the babies didn’t use $10 worth of water. After about 5 minutes Tim got our refund and we went to the nice Spicers Caravan Park a little further from the CBD. The site we got was perfect as it was right next to the playground.

Once we were settled into the van park and connected to mains power, I had a look for the charger that Winnebago mentioned. I had an idea where it was as I remembered seeing a unit in one of the storage bins and not knowing what it was for. I found the charger and checked all the connections and sure enough one of the plugs had come loose. So I shoved it back in and straight away the dial on the 12 volt panel went up.

Cheers, Bec

PS. The Utes in the Paddock display was fantastic and I really enjoyed the 164km round trip from Forbes to Parkes via Ootha (normally 33km). Along the way we saw quite a few original milestones on the side of the highway. The utes were all painted by well known local outback artists, two of whom we’ve met (in Lightning Ridge & Silverton). Cheers, Tim.